OpinioN8: Squishing blackberry’s

As a Canadian I am told on a regular basis that I shouldn’t be so hard on Blackberry (RIM) especially since I live 15 minutes away from their head office. My normal response is make me something I like and I will give you the support you deserve.

Blackberry was originally knows as Research in Motion. This little start up founded in 1984. Nobody really heard of them till several years later. They started this venture with Mike Lazaridis while attending University of Waterloo and Douglas Fregin at University of Windsor. These 2 highly intelligent guys started to implement there 2 way paging service for Ericsson, Pivotal around 1995.

In 1999 the blackberry hit the ground running with the launch of the Blackberry 850 roughly the size of a small bar of soap, this was also the first blackberry I owned. I loved it, I could now email anyone from anywhere. I was now a fully mobile working man. I did not need to be chained to the desk to keep email work flow alive. Over the years they kept updating the form factor and function. In 2002 they pumped out there first real smartphone combining there 2 way email pager and a phone. The mic and ear piece wasn’t even built in you actually required to use a wired headset.

At this point I loved blackberry so much that there was no other device even worth looking at anymore. They were making a quality product that was efficient good battery and durable. Everyone thought at this point that they will be the Kings of mobile communication….

WHAT HAPPEN RIM/BLACKBERRY? You had it all. Your shares were soaring everyone wanted one. In the mid to late 2000’s you were a tech and social outcast if you didn’t own one of these magnificent devices.

Then entered the smartphones wars. Google brings you Android (rough start for them) Apple presents Iphone to the world. Both of these new platforms brought you a new component you never thought you really wanted. CHOICE! (oh I guess windows has been trying too)

Now all of a sudden blackberry was not the top dog. People were lining up in droves to get the new iphone 1, 3g, 3gs, 4, 4s, 5 and so on and so on. Why were these people buying this new ipod phone and not the blackberry anymore? Well that’s simple apple offered choice. Not in various model options, not really that much in colours. The choice of options were “here is a bunch of apps to entertain you, make you more productive, help you find you music and so on. Blackberry gave you bbm. WHOOPIE DE DOOOOO!!!!!! Texting with the capability to stocking a response so that way when that little check mark turned into a letter D then the all-important letter R you could get all pissy with me because I didn’t respond to you.

Blackberry’s biggest fail is like so many other companies they thought they were too big to be taken down. Because of this, they stop innovating, they stop producing the right product and just kept repackaging the same garbage in a new sleeker body, they stopped listening to their customers and what they wanted. They failed the consumer, they failed me and most of all they failed themselves.

Final though

So ya I am Canadian an yes I don’t support blackberry and yes I do support Android and you know what at the end of the day I believe that a company only deserves my loyalty when it is loyal to me, and you, and to anyone else who is sick and tired of the crap these companies put out just make a quick buck off our hard work.

PEACE I’M OUT